A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. Psst—we don't count water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (specifically, 1/2 cup or less of olive oil, vegetable oil, and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. Today, we’re reimagining the classic flourless chocolate cake, just in time for Passover.
There are a lot of ways to avoid a dry chocolate cake. You can add mayonnaise. Or avocado. Or lots of hot water. Or, my favorite, you can skip the flour.
This chocolate cake calls for zero flour and a pint of heavy cream, most of which—1 ½ cups, to be exact—gets whipped into fluff and piled on top like a cloud. But the more interesting part is what happens to the other ½ cup.
Most flourless chocolate cakes have the same ingredient list: chocolate, sugar, eggs, and butter. Whipped cream on top is optional for some, but mandatory for this one. As Richard Sax said about his famous (and Genius) Chocolate Cloud Cake, the contrast between chocolate and cream yields “intensity, then relief, in each bite.”
So, if we're definitely piling a bunch of whipped cream on top of this cake, what’s to stop us from adding it to the cake, too?
According to award-winning baker Shirley O. Corriher, nothing. In her book BakeWise, she writes that adding whipped cream to cake batters “changes everything.” In a good way!
I've wrote about this technique for our Change the Way You Bake series. In the name of research, I added whipped cream to four baked good recipes on our site—a plum torte, chocolate loaf, bran muffins, and shortcakes. All very different, yes, but none like the unicorn that is a flourless chocolate cake.
I had to find out, right?
I used the Chocolate Cloud Cake as a jumping-off point—lowered the number of eggs, added salt, ditched the cognac and orange, and, a la Shirley, folded in 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff-ish peaks. Then I crossed my fingers.
Turns out: Already-fudgy, already-rich, and already-great flourless chocolate cake can be even fudgier, even richer, and even better. All thanks to whipped cream. While the crust retains its meringue-like shell, the interior becomes utterly mousse-like, with the decadence of chocolate ganache.
Like all flourless chocolate cakes, this one sinks into a Grand Canyon–esque crater as it cools. Which sounds (and looks) problematic until you realize this is the perfect place for more whipped cream—an almost outlandish amount that I won't apologize for. As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too much.
| 1/2 | cup (1 stick) unsalted butter |
| 8 | ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used 67%) |
| 4 | large eggs, at room temperature, whites and yolks separated |
| 1 | cup granulated sugar, divided |
| 1/4 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1/2 | cup heavy cream |
| 1/2 | cup (1 stick) unsalted butter |
| 8 | ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used 67%) |
| 4 | large eggs, at room temperature, whites and yolks separated |
| 1 | cup granulated sugar, divided |
| 1/4 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1/2 | cup heavy cream |
| 1 1/2 | cups heavy cream |
| Bittersweet chocolate, for shaving (optional) |
| 1 1/2 | cups heavy cream |
| Bittersweet chocolate, for shaving (optional) |
If you’re a Big Little fan, maybe you’re wondering: Where’s this week’s video? We’re taking a quick hiatus—yep, just like a TV show—to cook up the next season of episodes, premiering May 28. They’re gonna be bigger (and littler) and better than ever. Stay tuned!
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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